Proven Winners lists Lychnis 'Orange Gnome' as L. coronaria instead of the obvious L. arkwrightii.

A local nursery had Salvia Amistad labelled as 50 cm tall (roughly 20”). It easily gets to 6ft here! I politely informed the owner that this was misleading, but she refused to listen. She also tried to sell me Gaillardia as Echinacea and refused to believe she was wrong there too!

The worst mislabelling culprits however, are online nurseries.. hardy geraniums, heleniums, echinacea again, dahlias.. the list goes on. At least at a local nursery you can often see them in bloom, rely on your own knowledge or check growth habits etc. on the internet before you buy.

A pet peeve is reputable rose breeders who should know better, still insisting on calling some roses ‘antique tea roses’ and citing the incorrect breeder and date, when research has proven otherwise and they are clearly more modern hybrids.

Too long ago to remember the source, but a mail order Co, instead of 3 Chinese dogwoods (Cornus controversa), sent me as I discovered soon enough, 3 standard lilacs (they had the dogwood labels on them). Arborday sent me among its "free" trees a bur oak, but discovered it was a white oak, which was fine w/me.

Seed merchants can be very dodgy. One lot, famed for their glorious catalogue and vast collection of cutting garden varieties have, every single time I have ever dealt with them, sent out old, unviable seed, incorrect seed, even an empty packet once. I obviously blamed myself for all the fails...until the penny dropped that it was only happening with one particular company. I eventually got a voucher refund but was so dispirited, I never cashed it in. Several years down the line and they are the sole supplier of Colibri Icelandic poppies which I wanted so much, I paid an eye-watering sum for 50 minuscule seeds, back last autumn...only to find I am growing meconopsis cambrica...practically a weed (although Ia lovely one). Plants of Distinction (or extinction as I refer to them) - never again.

Last year a local nursery had a section labeled native plants, and there was a line of pots all labeled Solidago ’Fireworks’. Problem is, the pots all contained a plant that was a low growing basal rosette. I pointed out the error and was told that some plants look different when they first come up. I said I’m growing this in my garden, and that’s not the right plant. They just looked at me so I said you’re going to have some angry customers when this turns out not to be goldenrod, and I walked away. Later I could see several of the nursery staff huddled around that table with phones out, trying to figure it out. I’ve no idea if they corrected as I didn’t go back.